In his latest address Putin looked as pale and dead-eyed as Nosferatu
By Owen Matthews
They have been armed by the Russian military and ideologically empowered by near-hysterical levels of state propaganda
By Owen Matthews
Russia: Myths and Realities by Rodric Braithwaite and The Shortest History of the Soviet Union by Sheila Fitzpatrick reviewed
By Owen Matthews
His weaponizing of gas supplies to Europe is the financial equivalent of strapping on a suicide vest
By Owen Matthews
Ukraine’s grain is cheap, and is therefore usually exported to the world’s poorest countries
By Owen Matthews
A tragically large proportion of the Russian population are actively complicit in their own delusion
By Owen Matthews
He is in a great hurry to patch up the conflict between two of his most important trading partners
By Owen Matthews
His sensible, peace-talking statesman act flipped into something dark and irrational that has worried even his supporters
By Owen Matthews
For the Kremlin, sparking a war with the EU over refugees now would be ultimately self-defeating
By Owen Matthews
Putin’s love life remains the most taboo of forbidden subjects in Russia
By Owen Matthews
There were no breakthroughs — but at least, by Putin’s account at least, there was ‘no hostility’ between the two sides
By Owen Matthews
‘If you want to punish Lukashenko, give every young Belarusian a plane ticket and a Schengen visa’
By Owen Matthews
The American and Russian presidents have been taking potshots at each other for at least a decade
By Owen Matthews
Russia’s health service is infamously underfunded, but many of its doctors remain world-class
By Owen Matthews
